Philip Seymour Hoffman’s will asks for son to be raised in NYC, SF or Chicago, citing culture

NEW YORK – Philip Seymour Hoffman built a career in Hollywood, but his will shows he thought childhood was best spent in New York City, Chicago or San Francisco.

The Oscar-winning actor’s will was filed Wednesday, about two weeks after he was found dead in his Manhattan apartment of an apparent heroin overdose.

The will was signed in 2004, when only the eldest of Hoffman’s three children had been born. It was Hoffman’s “strong desire” that his son grow up in or near those cities – and in New York, specifically in Manhattan – or at least visit them twice or more per year, the will says.

“The purpose of this request is so that my son will be exposed to the culture, arts and architecture that such cities offer,” Hoffman’s will reads.

Papers filed with the will value Hoffman’s estate simply at “$500,000-plus.” The estate is bequeathed largely to his longtime partner, Mimi O’Donnell, with a trust fund for their son, now nearly 11.

The accompanying papers also note the boy’s two younger sisters, who are 7 and 5. The lawyer who filed the papers didn’t immediately respond to phone and email messages Wednesday evening.

The filing seeks to fast-track early steps in the legal process, saying that’s necessary so the estate can pay funeral and other bills and get police permission to go into the apartment where Hoffman was found, a few blocks from the apartment where O’Donnell and the children live.

Medical examiners haven’t ruled on what caused Hoffman’s death, but he was found with a syringe in his arm and dozens of packets of heroin nearby. The 46-year-old star of “Capote” and “The Master” said in interviews last year that he had sought treatment for a heroin problem after 23 years of sobriety.